Golden Girl
by dementeddarling
Summary: Love, loss, learning, and revenge all come together in the story of Aurelia Harper and her friends Lily Evans and the Marauders. When Aurelia loses her parents at the hands of the rising dark order at the age of 17 all their lives begin to change.
1. Gone

It happened early on a Friday morning. By that afternoon the children had all been notified and gathered. By the next day an article announcing the murder had hijacked the front page of the _Daily Prophet_. By Sunday afternoon people from all over the country were making their way to a secluded cemetery for the funerals of Jack and Catherine Harper.

Aurelia Harper stood ensconced between her two brothers, a slender figure sheathed in black, as she watched the casket hulls disappear into the ground. Tears slid silently down her cheeks, the only manifestation of her anguish. By the time her grandmother marshaled the family, what was left of it, to face the crowd of other mourners even the tears had vanished, tucked away with the other emotions somewhere deep and dark.

The queue of people waiting for a word with the family seemed interminable, and Aurelia stood rigid as one by one faceless acquaintances had their say. The condolences came rolling in, hackneyed platitudes that varied more in tone than in content, ranging from genuine to inappropriately smug. Finally she could take it no longer; she was tired of hearing about her own troubles, tired of being polite, and most of all tired of the dead trout disguising themselves as handshakes. When her Grandmother Portia was distracted by yet another fawning guest Aurelia slipped soundlessly away from her etiquette dictated obligations.

She came to rest on a large, raised tombstone that was invisible from her parents' gravesite. Before she sat down she examined the elaborate script etched onto the stone, it read: "Isabelle West-Ellis-Lofton-Green, 1891-1947, a merry wife and a merrier widow". Before she knew it a smile had crept onto Aurelia's face at the odd epitaph, only to be mercilessly suppressed when she remembered why she was in the graveyard in the first place. She felt a stab of remorse, she was quite sure that she would not want anyone wandering along and laughing at the epitaph they had chosen for her parents' headstone, though admittedly "They tried to improve the world, but were found too good for it" was rather less likely to induce wayward mirth.

For a time she simply sat there, legs tucked beneath her, thinking of the kind of nothing that has a concrete form to it, the kind of nothing that blocks out everything else. Her reverie did not last long however, for it was soon interrupted by a group of legs tromping into her field of vision. She looked up bemusedly, only to find her friends Lily Evans, Sirius Black, James Potter, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew standing in front of her.

"Oh, hello," Aurelia said, an implausibly bright smile on her lips.

"Oh, Aurelia, I am so sorry," murmured Lily.

Sirius dropped beside her on the stone and slung an arm casually over her shoulders as he spoke, "Hullo Harper, how are you holding up?"

"Oh I'm fine. You lot really needn't have bothered coming, I realize that this is not the most accessible or cheery place to travel."

Something in Aurelia's glib answer obviously upset Lily, for her voice had taken on an unusually high pitch. "Didn't need to come?" she repeated in disbelief, "this is your parents' funeral Aurelia, did you really think that we were just going to leave you to face it all alone? Which reminds me, you could have at least told us!"

"I didn't really know how. You don't exactly just go up to someone at breakfast and say 'oh my parents were found dead today, please pass the pumpkin juice' now do you? And what with all the exam stress I thought it might be better if I just sort of quietly slipped away, it's not that big of a deal Lily. Incidentally, how did you find out about today? The_ Prophet_ didn't list the funeral arrangements," said Aurelia dispassionately.

Lily looked fully prepared to issue a furious retort, but James hurriedly spoke up, "That was my fault, my parents knew and they told me and so I told everyone else. Come on, Aurelia, it wouldn't be right for us not to be here."

"And we had to bring you some liquid cheer," chimed in Sirius, pulling a flask apparently out of thin air. Aurelia took a swig before handing it back.

"You brought alcohol to a funeral?" Lily asked with a little sniff of disapproval.

"Just think of it as a wake, Lily, you'd be amazed how much better a little creative labeling can make you feel about things like this," said Remus with a wry smile.

"You would know all about that, the things you let them get away with."

"To be fair, there are a times when Moony only finds out about things after the fact, basically whenever we think he would whine enough to negate any good he would do," remarked Sirius.

"And by "whine" you mean keep you from doing anything too blatantly ridiculous or irresponsible of course."

"Oh of course, Moony, Sirius was just using that creative labeling you were just talking about," said James with a grin.

Sirius spoke next, "Yeah, Moony, and you can't be too offended, you always know more than Wormtail."

"Hey!" exclaimed Peter, affronted.

"Don't get your knickers in a twist Wormtail," Sirius continued, "We just don't tell you the things most likely to get you maimed or killed."

And then out of nowhere Lily exclaimed, "You prat! How can you be so insensitive, talking about getting killed at Aurelia's parents funeral?"

Aurelia's brow furrowed as she placed a hand on Lily's arm, "Lily, it's fine, he didn't mean anything by it."

"Of course you would defend him! None of you are taking this seriously, not even you, Aurelia! Your parents are dead. Don't you care?"

James interrupted her before she could say anything further. "Lily, leave it." His tone was not harsh, but there was no hiding its imperative nature. At first Lily looked confused and angry, she couldn't see why James should have shushed her, but when she looked at Aurelia she saw that her face had become utterly bloodless. She closed her mouth with a tiny, almost comical snap.

Keen to avoid any awkwardness, Remus tried to execute a hasty subject change, "Speaking of exams, Aurelia, what happened with yours?"

There was a moment of flux when it was unclear whether Aurelia would take hold of the conversational life buoy, it passed and she didn't. Her voice was arctic as she bit off her words, "Lily, you are my best friend but I swear to you that if you ever say something like that again I will make you regret it. I fully appreciate the gravity of the situation; both of my parents have just been murdered. I will never forgive and never forget that fact. How I choose to cope is my own affair."

And then it was over, the ice chips in her eyes thawed and she returned with unnerving rapidity to Remus's question. "Oh, and I was excused from the exams I hadn't already taken, Dumbledore's orders. It's not like sixth year exams really count for anything anyway, they're just prep for NEWTS. It's rather a pity though, I always do exceptionally well on Transfiguration exams."

Everyone was silent after her mercurial display. With the exception of Lily, who looked more wounded than the others, Aurelia's friends looked liked they had been recently confunded. When she shrugged Sirius's arm off and stood up she thought she saw Peter, whom she had hardly noticed until then, flinch.

As she walked purposefully across the grass Aurelia turned back toward the little group, gave them a sad smile, and said, "I think I'll go to Grandmother's house now. Home, I mean." And with that she turned on the spot and vanished, leaving her distressed friends staring at empty space.

**A/N: As you can see this is a story about an OC during the marauder era who is friends with both Lily and the marauders. I will go ahead and warn you that updates will be slow in coming. Please review and let me know if you want more, constructive criticism or other comments are always appreciated. Thanks for reading!**


	2. Dine and Dash

Aurelia loved her grandmother as much as the next person, but she viewed her mandatory residence at her grandmother's manor in Derbyshire as nothing short of dreadful. Beyond the small irritations like only having access to food dubbed "suitable for her grandmother's constitution" and having to at least pretend to abide by her grandmother's early hours, there was the actual presence of the woman herself.

Portia Ashton had spent her numerous years believing that she was God's gift to the wizarding world, the epitome of good breeding and class. The Ashtons were an old and powerful wizarding family, and while none of them were muggle-haters by any stretch of the imagination, they, and Portia in particular, were quite sure they were a cut above the masses (both wizard and muggle). Naturally Portia felt that any descendent of hers should be the same. Aurelia's mother had been a talented and well-respected witch, but marrying a man with no family to speak of and moving to a house in London were not in Portia's plans for Catherine and Portia Ashton had never quite gotten over her only daughter's transformation from an esteemed Ashton to just a plain Harper. To Portia, Aurelia's arrival in the house, regardless of its dismal circumstances, represented a golden opportunity. To Aurelia, it was a nightmare.

Every time Aurelia was around her grandmother Portia was bludgeoning her with culture lessons that her mother "had been terribly remiss not to have given her at a younger and more malleable age". In truth Aurelia's manners were just fine, but they were a far cry from Portia's standards. A dance teacher, a piano teacher, and a tutor for household spellwork were immediately found and lodged in the guest wing of the house so that they would be on hand any time Aurelia had a free moment. Portia immediately set her seamstress to work making Aurelia new robes. No time or expense was spared in Portia's quest to make Aurelia the perfect Ashton heiress while she was so conveniently on hand.

Aurelia lasted nearly two weeks before she started to get an anxious kind of internal itch. By two and a half she knew she had to confront her grandmother or she was going to go mad.

"Grandmother," she said one morning after chewing determinedly on fiber enriched toast, "I really don't see why I need a dance instructor or a piano teacher."

Portia raised her impeccably plucked eyebrows. "Because you need to know how to dance and play the piano. I would have thought that was obvious."

Aurelia took a calming breath before she answered, she had decided to be a gentle as possible with her grandmother, thinking that maybe forcing her into so many ridiculous lessons was her grandmother's way of coping with their recent loss. "That's just it, Grandmother, I really don't see why I do."

"Aurelia. All women of breeding can dance and play the piano."

"But I loathe practicing the piano and I would rather play quidditch than dance," explained Aurelia matter-of-factly. It became clear that she had chosen the wrong tact when Portia sniffed in disdain.

"Are you my granddaughter or are you a fourteen year old boy?" she asked; her jibe cut through Aurelia's resolved calm like a machete.

"Of course I'm not a fourteen year old boy, despite what those abominable robes you had made might suggest!"

"Those robes are demure, elegant, and fitting for someone of your station."

"They aren't elegant, and last time I checked, my station was not in the cloisters," she snapped, and stormed out of the breakfast room in high dudgeon.

For a few days that was how it went, every time Aurelia brought up the possibility of getting rid of Monsieur Marche and Frau Franz her grandmother made it quite clear that she would not even consider it and the two invariably ended up in a very petty altercation.

Well, that was even worse than just going to the dance and piano lessons, so Aurelia stopped complaining about them. She also stopped going.

She knew that Marche and Franz were surely reporting to Portia, but her grandmother said nothing about her shirking. As a psychological warfare tactic, which Aurelia had no doubt she was employing, it worked well. Aurelia was constantly on tenterhooks waiting for the dressing down that was surely on its way, but that didn't mean that she stopped skipping her courses on class, and to her immense surprise, Monsieur Marche and Frau Franz went quietly back to the continent.

After that, things were quiet for a while, and Aurelia just knew that her Grandmother had finally learned that you couldn't make a silk purse if the silk was as stubborn as she was. But she was soon to find out that she wasn't the only one who could be stubborn.

When her grandmother asked Aurelia if she wanted to go out to dinner she jumped at the chance to order whatever she wanted to eat, preferably something large and full of calories, fats, and sugars. When her grandmother said they had to dress for dinner and laid out a surprisingly fashionable and flattering gown, she was surprised but not suspicious. She should have been.

After they walked around a bend and were faced with a well-lit mansion instead of some expensive restaurant Aurelia's internal alarm bells finally started ringing. "I thought we were going out to dinner," she asked, not without some trepidation.

"We are, Jane Upchurch always has the best food at her parties."

"Party?"

"Well I believe ball is a little extravagant a term for tonight's gathering," at that Aurelia tried to turn away, but Portia had her arm in a vice like grip belying her age, "and don't try anything, Dear, we're past the apparition point anyway." And thus Aurelia was shanghaied into attending a party that she had no desire to go to, an unpleasant turn of events compounded by the fact that she was swept right past the mouthwatering table of hors d'oeuvres and into the dancing.

And so, like every other pretty girl, she was ferried from partner to partner in the strange social ritual so reminiscent of musical chairs. To say she was enjoying herself would have been overstating, but her dance lessons had paid off and by and large her partners were nice. Yes, overall she was having a quite tolerable time, at least until her grandmother interrupted a sojourn at the food table and steered her into the arms of the esteemed Ashley Upchurch.

As soon as she heard his name Aurelia knew that she was facing what was most likely the sole reason that she had been hoodwinked into coming "out to dinner" in the first place. Ashley was Jane Upchurch's only son and Portia could not rain enough praise down on his blonde head; according to her he was polite, gracious, and the embodiment of all things good and wonderful. Aurelia was determined to hate him purely on principle as soon as she heard his name. The fact that he was attractive (in a fine boned, almost pretty, sort of way) and an excellent dancer just made her loathe him all the more.

After eight steps of silence, which made it abundantly clear that Aurelia was not going to speak, Ashley broke the silence, "So…you're the famous Aurelia Harper."

"I would hardly say famous," she replied, her voice seasoned with a sprinkling of hauteur.

"Oh, I assure you that in certain circles you are creating quite the stir. Especially those circles which involve my mother."

"Well, I have no doubt that you are about to be disappointed."

"But you've already lived up to your much vaunted beauty, has anyone ever told you that your eyes are like looking deep into the ocean?"

Aurelia's eyebrow skidded up before the words were even all of the way out of his mouth, "Aha…and what do you tell the brown-eyed girls?"

"What do you mean?"

And then Aurelia had a change of heart; she decided that there was no reason for outright hostility, she could be much more creative by employing a different tact.

"I just meant that was so wonderfully, astoundingly poetic. I always wished that I had brown eyes, what would you tell me then?"

Ashley smiled a fat smile of indulgence, "Never even consider it. Your indigo eyes and your golden hair are far too harmonious to ever dream of separating them."

She looked down in an attitude that reeked of the demure well bred female. "Oh, Ashley," she murmured. Then the music ended, and she looked up, "Well, I must dash. Great party, tell your mother that famous Aurelia says hello." And she walked out of the room and out of the party with a twisted little grin.

_A/N: So…New chapter! Yay! Please, please, please review; it would do wonders for a somewhat deflated ego. Thanks for reading, and, as always, constructive criticism is appreciated, as are kind words!_


	3. Banished

If Aurelia thought that she had seen the last of Ashley Upchurch after her little vanishing act, she was sadly mistaken. Rather than avoiding attention by skirting outright hostility, it was clear by the next morning that she had accidently captured his interest. She knew for sure because her Grandmother minced no words while telling her over breakfast.

"Well, Aurelia, after I was unable to find you last night I did not expect to say this, but I must commend you on your behavior at the party last night."

Aurelia quickly looked up from book she was perusing. "Er, what?"

"Oh, Aurelia, you can save that coy attitude for Mr. Upchurch. His mother sent me an owl this morning to let me know how happy she was when he told her that he wants to stop by at our earliest convenience. He's stopping by for tea this afternoon."

"Oh, today's really not great for me, Grandmother, I sort of had other plans."

"Of course it is, Dear. By the grace of god you have caught Ashley Upchurch's fancy, I think you can make it a good day."

That pretty much left Aurelia no choice unless she wanted to resort to all out rebellion, so she dragged herself up the stairs to get dressed, determined to make as bad an impression at tea as possible while still convincing her grandmother that she was making a legitimate effort. The first thing she did was put on one of the sets of robes her Grandmother had had made for her.

Ashley arrived for tea five minutes early fastidiously dressed and ready to impress. When he was shown into the drawing room he offered up a box of homemade scones ("the best in Britain thanks to our house-elf, Ralf"), then bent low over Portia's hand. Watching from the wing chair on which she had been arranged, Aurelia kept her eyes on the scones as the two exchanged painfully pleasant social niceties. As soon as Lottie, her favorite house-elf, brought them into reach with a wink Aurelia grabbed one. She was savoring it with her eyes closed when she heard Ashley say her name.

"Er, Aurelia? Enjoying the scones?"

Slowly she opened her eyes and answered, "Ooh yes, these are sinfully good. You must thank Ralf for me."

"Oh, he doesn't need thanks, he loves to do it."

Aurelia narrowed her eyes at that, but bit back a retort when she intercepted her Grandmother's sharp glance.

Portia hastened to fill the spawning silence, "So, Mr. Upchurch, you work at the Ministry of Magic do you not? Why don't you tell us about your work?"

"Please, Mrs. Ashton, call me Ashley. And yes, I do work at the Ministry, if you can call it work. I'm in and out of the Department of International Cooperation. I'm one of the liaisons to the French ministry, gives me an excellent opportunity to practice my accent and put all those years of tutoring to use."

"Sounds fascinating," intoned Aurelia flatly.

"Not really," he explained conspiratorially, "right now they have some strange idea that we have some sort of problem here in Britain. The word mauvais keeps getting bandied about, I have to keep assuring them that nothing untoward is going on and that the need to check their facts. Sometimes I would swear that they're afraid of their own broomtails. Aurelia? What's the matter?"

Without even realizing it she had stood up in answer to a pounding behind her eardrums, and then she was shouting, "Nothing untoward? You think that there's nothing wrong? Good people, including _my parents_, have been murdered, and you sit here talking about how nothing untoward is going on? It's people like you, people that just turn a blind eye, people that don't care, that are the reason my parents are dead!"

For a tense moment Ashley was completely silent. Then he stood up gingerly, murmuring, "I think I should be going. Aurelia. Mrs. Ashton." He nodded to both of them.

But Aurelia wasn't ready to let it go, "Oh no, you stay, I'm sure Grandmother wants to fawn over you for a while longer. As for me, even your Upchurch fortune can't keep me in this room for a single moment longer." She shouldered her way past him and ran up the stairs to her room, slamming the door so hard that the hinges rattled when she got there.

It wasn't long before someone came to check on her, but it wasn't Ashley Upchurch and it certainly wasn't her grandmother; it was Lottie. The elf came into the room with almost uncanny quiet despite the fact that she bore a tray laden with hot cocoa and biscuits.

"Lottie brought you some cocoa, Miss Aurelia. I is thinking you might be wanting some."

After a deep breath Aurelia rolled over on her bed to face the elf. "Thank you, Lottie, cocoa sounds lovely," she said, but didn't reach for the mug. Slowly, hesitantly, Lottie slipped her spindly fingers into Aurelia's hand and squeezed.

"Mr. Ashley is not meaning any harm in what he said, Miss Aurelia."

Aurelia looked down at the elf then heaved a sigh. "I know, Lottie, but still. He's a smarmy, over-privileged prick even if he wasn't purposefully bating me."

"Miss Aurelia shouldn't talk like that about Mr. Ashley, not when Miss Portia is liking him so much."

"Oh Lottie, Grandmother doesn't like Ashley Upchurch, she likes Jane Upchurch and the Upchurch name. She wants to marry me off to some big, aristocratic dynasty. I'm a pawn. Sometimes I think I'm the only one who even remembers that my parents are gone." Her voice was a cocktail of bitterness with notes of cynicism, resentment, and sadness.

"People cares, Miss Aurelia. Your grandmother cares. But maybe tomorrow you should be writing to your brothers, to Mr. Edward and Mr. Oliver. Lottie knows they is caring about your parents."

"Edward doesn't have time for that, he's busy with Elisabeth and little Johnny. And Oliver's busy making his way up the ladder at the paper, but maybe I will write him."

"That is right, Miss Aurelia. Now drink your cocoa, Lottie is making it just the way you like it."

Aurelia accepted the cup that Lottie was now holding out to her. "Thank you, Lottie. For everything."

"You is always welcome, Miss Aurelia," said Lottie as she walked out of the room. Aurelia watched her go, feeling just a bit better.

That was the last comfort that she was going to get after her outburst. When she arrived downstairs for breakfast the next morning her grandmother was waiting for her.

"Aurelia Harper, I cannot believe the humiliation that you caused this family, that you caused _me_, yesterday afternoon. Ashley Upchurch is a fine young man from a good family and you treated him like a common street urchin. I am finished making excuses for your appalling behavior young lady, I can no longer abide having you in my house. Pack your bags."

It was as if Portia had slapped her. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me. You may be my granddaughter, but I will not let you embarrass me in my own home."

"But…where I am going to go? I am going to live with Oliver?"

"I should say not. Living in the middle of London alone with your twenty-year-old brother? I should say not. You are going to the old family estate in Cornwall. I expected you to be leave this afternoon. The estate is staffed; you can stay there until you return to Hogwarts. I may come visit in a few weeks."

"Please don't," answered Aurelia coldly. And with that she sedately walked to her room to pack her things, and by that night she had entered into her exile.

_A/N: Yay new chapter! Please, please review. I especially love constructive criticism and could use some suggestions on the summary. Thanks so much for reading! Stay tuned! _


	4. Holiday

It wasn't as bad as Aurelia had expected. The "estate" was no manor by any means, it only had one elderly house-elf and the cottage, for that was the accurate term, was old and creaky and even a little bit shabby; but to Aurelia, it was a relief. Nestled by the sea with walls of warm sun-bleached stone and an interior filled with light and mismatched furniture, the whole place offered a homey appeal that Portia's house could never even come close to conveying.

It didn't take long for Aurelia to slip into a routine. Her first day in exile, she found the gem of the house, a moderately sized library full of classic volumes and muffled in that old book smell. She divided her days between swimming and spending time on the beach or the cliffs and reading in the window seat in her room. Every waking minute was managed in order to prevent any crack in her emotional armor, mentally or physically she was always active. She immersed herself in a world of activity and fantasy that was bright and engrossing even if it was a little shaky around the edges.

When she had just established a nice status quo, the visitors started dropping by.

She was wandering idly along the cliffs one day when she saw someone sitting on the porch watching curls of smoke drift up from a glowing cigarette. For a moment she slowed, squinting into the sunset, but then her face relaxed into lines of joy and set out for the house at a trot.

"Oliver!" She exclaimed, running up to him and throwing her arms around his neck, "what are you doing here?"

He hugged Aurelia close until she had to disentangle herself and then replied as he folded himself down onto the porch steps, "Well, Lottie might have dropped me a line about the Grandmonster putting my favorite kid sister to pasture. Since I'm far too spineless to take on the old bird and have the sentence overturned I decided I'd just come cheer you up. How are you?"

"I'm great actually, being out here is much better than living at the illustrious manor. Here I can wear a bikini without anyone making a reference to the world's oldest profession. I mean where else can you find joy like that?"

"Wow. I know that's what I look for when I'm finding a new place. So, I'm afraid to ask, but what exactly happened?"

"It's a long story. Suffice to say that it ends in me being unacceptably rude to a member of the beau monde for being flip about our parents. It was inexcusable obviously," she said acidly.

Oliver shot her a sideways glance, "Lia, you've got to let it go. People can't always be on their guard about whether they're going to say something that might remind you of our parents or that might upset you. You get that, right?"

She turned towards him with her chin up and her nostrils flared. "Yes, Oliver, I get that I can't be going off on people for little things. But I am _not_ going to let it go. Apparently you don't remember, or don't care, or I don't even know, but our parents were murdered. I can never let that go and I don't see how you can either."

"Aurelia. There's nothing we can do. The very best thing we can do is just get on with our lives." He put his hand on her shoulder with unusual tenderness, but she immediately shrugged it off.

"Thanks for coming, Oliver, but I bet you have lots to do at the paper and should probably be getting back."

"Lia…"

"Do you know if Lottie wrote to Edward too? Because I really don't want he and Elisabeth to have to leave Johnny to come to visit."

"Lottie and I wouldn't inflict that on you," he paused, waiting for her to smile or betray some evidence of emotion. She didn't. "Well, I guess I'll be going. Owl me if you need me." She looked at him askance. "I mean it, Lia, if you need anything at all let me know." He gave her a one armed hug and set off down the walk to the apparition point as she stared moodily after him.

Her next visitor was lighter hearted. One Elysian morning she was dozing on the beach, skipping back and forth over the border between waking and sleeping when with no warning at all she was immersed in freezing water. Flailing and screeching she got her bearings and made her way to shore. She stalked out of the water, glowering, right in to a giant bear hug, courtesy of Sirius Black. She was looking over his shoulder when she noticed something that made a smirk crawl its way up her lip to replace her grimace. After a moment of letting the moment ripen she began screaming.

"Help! Help! Oh, please, help me!" she screeched. Sirius just looked at her like she had gone barmy until he saw the man running down the beach toward them; then he removed his arms and scampered away from her with astonishing haste. Aurelia just stood there, sopping wet, using every miniscule bit of self-control she possessed to keep succumbing to the giggles bubbling up in her throat.

Until, that is, she saw the man produce a wand from somewhere on his person. Then her mouth dropped into a tiny "o" of astonishment, which only took a moment to mutate into horror. She swiveled her head to look at Sirius and saw that he had already pulled out his own wand and was looking tense as a bowstring.

"What's going on here? Are you all right, Miss? Was he trying to hurt you?" The man's voice was deep like a lake, both concerned and slightly threatening.

The first thing Aurelia did was step in front of Sirius, a response that invoked a puzzled head tilt in the unintentionally quixotic rescuer. "Oh, erm…" Aurelia stumbled, trying to figure out the best way to break the news to a man who was, admittedly, taller and rather more intimidating than he had looked from a far. After chewing nervously on her lip, the truth just came tumbling out, "I'm terribly sorry, it's, I mean, it was just a joke. He's actually one of my best friends, has been for years."

Had it been anyone else that would probably have been the end of it, but this man furrowed his brow slightly and looked over at Sirius. "I saw your wand, how do I know she's not confunded, or worse?"

Aurelia tried to say something, but Sirius nudged her out of the way and exclaimed hotly, "Look mate, it was a harmless joke. I don't know what it's going to take to convince you, but I would _never_ do something like that to any girl, much less one of my best friends."

Not knowing what else to do, Aurelia just stood there doing her best not to look confounded, imperioused, befuddled, or otherwise coerced. She put a hand on Sirius's wand arm, in a half-hearted attempt to calm him (making sure he would still be able to use the if necessary and cursing the fact that she had left her own wand on the nightstand) and tilted her chin up defiantly. No one acted at first, it was just a gridlock of wills, but finally the stranger gave in. "So you two are telling me this was all just some sort of joke?"

"It's a very long story…" Aurelia offered.

"Well, I can only hope that its funnier on the inside looking out. I'll let you two get back to it then."

Something about his tone made Aurelia and Sirius both shy away from each other. "Oh no," said Aurelia, as Sirius interjected, "It's not like that."

The man just bowed slightly, saying sardonically, "My apologies," and continued walking down the beach.

When Sirius and Aurelia were alone she turned to face him, lip held sheepishly between her teeth, awaiting his reaction. To her relief, but not surprise, he burst into whooping barks of laughter until he was almost doubled over. "Oh, man, Harper, you've got a special kind of luck. Of all the guys who could have been walking down the beach when you decided to pull that excellent stunt, very nice by the way, you would get the one who would think I had 'confounded you, or worse', how ominous." By the time he finished, Aurelia too was grinning widely. They walked back up to the cottage arm in arm and spent the rest of the visit doing light, frivolous things, avoiding talk of their problems. It was so wonderful that Aurelia was sad to see him go.

Sirius's visit had two unexpected results. First, Aurelia realized something that she had a very ambiguous feeling about, she realized that she was actually glad that Lily was on holiday abroad and couldn't come visit. It was easy to fill letters with cheerful jabbering that Lily would never have stood for in person. Aurelia could just see it in her head, Lily bursting into the cottage practically radiating good intentions, telling her to let it all out, to share, which would be followed by her own staunch refusal, and probably a healthy dose of shouting by the end of it all. Of course Lily was still her best friend, Aurelia knew that was true, but she just didn't think she could face all of the emotional mumbo-jumbo. Letters were just…easier.

The other effect of Sirius's visit was that she began frequently seeing the man from the beach incident. It began one day while she was on one of her walks. Suddenly, someone was walking at an angle that put them on course to intersect her path. She tensed, deciding whether or not to flee in case it was another, probably unwelcome, visitor. Then she saw the man, for it was definitely a man, wave in an unfamiliar way and decided to face the music and just keep walking. She was not at all pleased when she saw that it was protective-beach-man, as she had dubbed him, because while she could have just ignored a total stranger she felt compelled to at least acknowledge the man who had stepped up to her (unnecessary) rescue. As they passed each other she gave him a shadow of a smile, looked down, and kept walking.

After that she saw him more and more. She would be on the beach reading and he would walk by, or she would be swimming and she would see him on the shore, and she often encountered him as she was walking. It was actually a little uncanny. Before she knew what was happening, they had developed a kind of camaraderie that developed as the summer days glided by. One day he said hello, the next time she saw him she gave him a genuine smile. On another not so special day they ran into each other while they were walking, and instead of just passing he turned and fell into step with her.

"So, where are you headed?" he asked.

"Headed?"

"Yeah," he grinned boyishly, an expression Aurelia had not expected to see on his face, "it means where are you going, what are you doing, what's your purpose out here?"

Her lips pursed, "I don't suppose I'm doing anything other than walking. What are you doing?"

"Walking with you."

"Uh huh. Well that doesn't seem very worthwhile for you now does it?"

"Sure it does. I could walk by myself, or I could walk with you, this way we both have company."

"What if I don't want company?" she asked, only halfway joking.

"Oh come on, everyone wants company."

She raised an eyebrow at him, "Not I," she said, then turned and walked back toward the cottage.

That was the first of many random little run-ins and conversations that the two had and eventually Aurelia grew to rather enjoy them. It was nice having someone to talk to that didn't know anything about her or want to delve into her baggage. The two of them just covered the basics, she told him her name and that she was on holiday from school, and he told her that his name was Finn Fletcher and that he was twenty years old, and that, like Aurelia, he was also on holiday. Despite the fact that she had seem him draw his wand and heard him talk about magic they never spoke of it, despite Aurelia's burning curiosity. They kept up a façade of impersonality by not finding out the specifics of each other's lives, but by Finn's last day by the sea their questions had gotten quite personal in an abstract sort of way.

"So," Finn asked, "what are your thoughts on love?"

"What about it?"

He rolled over on his side so that he could look at her more easily, "You know, do you believe in true love, love at first sight, love everlasting, etc."

He looked at her expectantly until she answered. "Well, I guess the jury is still out for me."

"That's really all you're going to say? You don't have an opinion?"

She rolled over too, smiling edgily, "That's all I've got. Besides, isn't it usually girls who are asking these kind of questions?"

With a harrumphing sound Finn shifted back onto his back and for a while there was silence as the two looked up at the sky. Finally Finn rekindled conversation, "I have to leave tomorrow."

"It's going to be different without you," said Aurelia noncommittally.

"Good different or bad different?"

"Oh definitely some good different, but maybe mostly bad different."

"So basically, you're saying that you're going to miss me."

"No," she said quickly, but then relented, "maybe a little."

"I get the feeling that from you that's quite a complement," there was pause that made Aurelia squirm a little bit where she lay, though she wasn't sure why. Finn continued, his voice stiff with renewed resolve, "Aurelia."

"Yes?" she asked, head cocked.

"I'm going to kiss you now." And before she had a chance to say anything one of his hands was in her hair and one was on the small of her back pulling her towards him as his mouth found hers. She didn't resist, and after a moment of restraint she was kidding him back. But after a few minutes she pushed herself away, the word sorry falling repeatedly from her lips as scrambled to her feet in the sand and rushed towards the cottage. She occasionally tossed backwards glances at Finn, who was sitting where she had left him, but she didn't turn back.

By the next morning when went looking for him he was already gone.

_A/N: New chapter! Yay, it's been forever. Review with comments and suggestions!_


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